Midterm report presentations begin: post your quizzes, Kari & Tanner.
1. What has Betsy DeVos devoted her life to?
2. What's Jeff Sessions' objection to consent decrees?
3. What's the Koch brothers' goal?
4. What's Blackwater's connection to the Trump administration?
5. Who says the nuclear threat once again seems real?
6. What's the link between war and oil prices? How are preventing war and averting climate chaos one and the same fight?
7. What's the lag time between the release of CO2 and warming, with what implication for any particular administration?
8. What confidence is shared by Trump's inner circle?
9. "What good is utopia?"
10. What did her family experience teach Klein about how humans can respond to a shock?
11. What was the problem with our national response to 9/11, if not that we'd had no experience of such shocks in the past?
12. What did the Day Without Immigrants highlight?
13. What were protesters demanding on Earth Day 2017 and a week later?
Discussion Questions:
- Add your DQs
- Would privatizing education have implications for our effectiveness in combating climate change?
- What's objectionable about keeping the Justice Department and federal courts from intervening in state and local police affairs?
- Is there any defensible rationale for "back-channel lines of communication"? 166
- Is there any constitutional way of preventing a president from engaging in reckless talk of nuclear warfare?
- How can we prevent politicians and business interests from exploiting economic crises? Was Dodd-Frank on the right track? 175
- Is there an analogy between politicians whose own children don't participate in war and the wealthy who expect not to be harmed by the worst climate shocks ahead?
- Have you experienced shocks in your life that have corroborated Klein's optimism?
- Who does Jose Maria Aznar remind you of? 194-5
 | The Conversation US (@ConversationUS) |
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Crash tests show that fuel-efficient cars can also be very safe (despite what the Trump Administration claims) bit.ly/2InFxB7
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 | The New Yorker (@NewYorker) |
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Silicon Valley is investing billions into research on living forever. And young blood is just one of the methods: nyer.cm/3kCwwX7 pic.twitter.com/Q0TVIk7YYc
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A world without work? What would we do? Letters in the Times...
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ReplyDeleteQuestion 1) In your life what do you feel protective of?
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2) Is there a place or a person that you would shield from the effects of climate change?
Question 3)What would you do to prepare yourself for The Storm?
Question 4) Who's character in this novel do you feel you relate to?
Question 5) Does a superstorm seem like science fiction or a reality in the future?
Question 6) Do you think Pia is selfish for wanting to conceive a child on her own knowing August's family situation?
Question 7) Do you believe cli-fi fiction can influence successive generations to have a different relationship with the natural world?
Quiz
DeletePia joins the —
Isolé (French) means 1. friendly 2) Isolated 3)warning
There is an impending —
Is anyone else watching AHS:Cult right now? It's a little too scary. It's not just some haunted house in a fictional town like in season 1, it's highlighting the election and other events in 2016 that make it too close to home. Ally and Ivy, a homosexual couple raising a boy named Oz are devastated after the results of the election, Ally starts seeing hallucinations of her phobias that almost everyone can related to. In other words, she has a lot of phobias. I'm sure everyone remembers the clown sightings that terrified civilians, the season also brings that into account. Turns out a lot of people are afraid of clowns! My point is that a lot of people felt Trump's election made them feel terrified for the future and AHS actually made a show to highlight this fear. Isn't that crazy? After Trump was elected, I was in a state of shock for a while. Clinton won the popular vote and the President-elect still went to Trump. That's when I felt some sort of betrayal, like my vote didn't count at all. Then there were marches to protest his election, it didn't change the effect. I don't have a reason to fear deportation or probably being drafted into war, but I do feel a sense of fear when people gather do a worthwhile cause: finding the best person to lead our nation into the future; and it's met with "your vote doesn't matter, this individual gets 10X the voting power you do!" I also fear nuclear war, the deregulation of women's rights, planned parenthood being defunded and I would not like a privatized education system. Most people couldn't afford that system, does that mean most individuals would not be educated unless they have the money? When it comes to the results of this past election it doesn't feel like we live in a democracy. It's more like the Republic from 'Hunger Games'. My point is most people didn't have to live with this fear under the Obama administration, but many individuals now have a really terrible feeling about our future. Do you, too?
ReplyDeleteI just finished it, and it was very dark. I was genuinely surprised that a show with this premise was on tv. Normally big tv networks have been seen to avoid such loaded and political topics in order to not alienate their viewership. I wouldn't say that I have a terrible feeling about the future because I will always have hope but with the way the the country is right now I am fearful. We are more divided then we have been in quite some time and that worriers me.
DeleteI’m right behind you, I’d like to remain an optimist that we are not past the point of no return and have option to remain a beautiful green planet without artificial trees. I may be disheartened over the fact Trumps’ administrators continually prioritize their wealth over the science of climate change but I hope the upcoming elections will change our lives for the better
DeleteI hope so too, but I am afraid that if Trump is reelected that chaos on a larger scale then last time that he was elected. It is sad to see that anyone would prioritize their own monetary value over the value that one holds for the plant.
DeleteMax McConnell- Blog will not let me sign in for whatever reason
ReplyDelete1. What is one of Trump’s most sadistic dreams? Pg 162 Bringing back torture.
2. How does Peter Maass describe Trump’s White House? Pg 162 “a pistole cocked to go off at the first touch.”
3. Klein says that while survivalists stockpile canned goods and water in preparation for major disasters, this administration is stockpiling what? Pg 163 “spectacularly antidemocratic ideas”
4. What does Klein find striking about the decision of the French government following the coordinated attacks in Paris in 2015? Pg 164 “it was only outdoor political activity that was not permitted. Large concerts, Christmas markets, and sporting events- the sorts of places that were likely targets for future attacks- were free to carry on as usual.” And that this took place under a government in a country with a long tradition of disruptive strikes and protests
5. What is something Klein says we need to be prepared for? Pg 165 “we should be prepared for security shocks to be exploited as excuses to increase the rounding up and incarceration of large numbers of people from the communities this administration is already targeting: Latino immigrants, Muslims, black lives matter organizers, and climate activists.
6. What did ISIS say about Trump’s first anti-Muslim travel ban? What did Iran’s foreign minister say about it? Pg 168 ISIS called it a “blessed ban” claiming it would help recruit more fighters for their cause. Iran’s foreign minister called it “a gift to extremists”
7. Why does Trump’s own National security advisor say that Trump’s repeated use of the term “radical Islamic terrorism” is unhelpful? Pg 168 He says that it is because the terrorists are “un-Islamic.”
8. When the cost of oil fell in 2015, how was the Russian economy affected? Pg 173 Real wages fell off by nearly10%, The ruble (Russian currency depreciated almost 40%: and the population of people classified as poor rose from 3 million to over 19 million.
9. What would rob us of our last chance to avert catastrophic climate change? Pg 174 An unleash global frenzy of new high-risk fossil fuel extraction, from the Artic to the tar sands.
10. When considering how many Goldman-Sachs executives compose White House policy, what does Klein say is an ominous sign? Pg 175 Trump issues an executive order calling for a review of the specific part of the Dodd-Frank designed to prevent tax payers from being stuck with the bill for another bailout of big banks.
11. What are Trump and his gang betting on? Pg 190 That their all at once strategy will send their adversaries scrambling in all directions and ultimately causing them to give up out of sheer exhaustion or a sense of futility.
12. What is the danger of this Blitzkrieg strategy? Pg 190 That the danger of starting fights on so many fronts is that if it doesn’t succeed in demoralizing your opponents, it could very well unite them.
-Discussion question: Despite a utopian state being an unreachable, and pragmatically inconceivable goal, what is the idea good for?
What is objectionable about keeping the Justice Department and federal courts from intervening in state and local police affairs?
ReplyDeleteThe history of policing reveals varied patterns of emphasis on solving crimes, preventing crimes, and providing other services. It is useful to consider these patterns with an eye toward the respective roles of the public and private sectors during various stages in the evolution of modern policing. The United States took much longer to develop an effective public policing service. Crimes in colonial America had been handled differently depending on the setting. In the countryside, the top law enforcement officer was a fee-for-service sheriff, paid by the number and types of criminals caught, subpoenas served, and tax dollars collected. Towns also used a fee-for-service system to pay constables working for the court to serve subpoenas and make arrests. Meanwhile, as the West expanded, cattle theft and other crimes were handled either by a quasi-public hired marshal or by vigilantes.
The need for a more public form of policing in the United States grew substantially in the 19th century as immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Italy poured into the cities. The influx of people brought more serious crime, a host of related urban security problems, and the militia had not been created to deal with such matters. The U.S. system of municipal policing developed into a body of police with an inclination to patrol the election facilities to help secure the tenure of their patrons, more in some cities than others. The police also established reputations for being especially tough on immigrants and minorities. Before long, policing in most large cities became associated with corruption, brutality, and incompetence. These early police departments were nonetheless quite different from the constable and watch systems they replaced, and in some ways better suited to deal with problems inherent in urbanization. They were organized in hierarchies, with militaristic command and control systems, and with telegraph equipment linking precincts to central headquarters. The police were moved from the judicial to the executive branch, with the courts providing virtually no control over police operations. For some, removing policing from the judicial branch might be objectionable, but for others – they feel that the government is so large and so withdrawn from communities that the federal agencies would not be able to police effectively or responsibly.
Discussion Question:
ReplyDeleteKlein states that interrogation techniques (torture) utilized by the military are determined by the “Army Field Manual.” 1st, there is no single “Army Field Manual.” 2nd, the rules regulating the treatment of prisoners are dictated in the Geneva Convention and the Convention Against Torture. These are international agreements our country was instrumental in creating to prevent the atrocities of the world wars from repeating and to protect our Soldiers and citizens from abuse.
Do you think that we should continue to uphold these conventions and if they apply to non-state military conflicts?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/19/AR2006061901351.html?noredirect=on
Refugees:
Not all countries appear to have not “redressed their founding crimes” as Klein claims. In 2015, Germany opened it’s borders to refugees when most other countries did not. This has not been popular. See article:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/angela-merkel-syrian-refugees-crisis-million-repeat-do-the-same-again-a7918811.html
Do you think Germany was right to act as it did? Should we?
AT
Hello! This article online introduces Joel Clement, a top climate expert who worked at the U.S Department of Interior in Washington, D.C. before he left his position to join the Union of Concerned Citizens. More on that in the interview! Clement has had an on-going feud with the Trump administration. He discusses with Katie Langin, an associate editor for Climate Career online on some advice for young worried citizens: keep your head down and your hand up, know your rights and protections, talk to others and maybe do some federal service!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/07/trump-administration-whistleblower-s-message-young-scientists-do-time-federal-service
November 9, 2016, one day after the election, Jeffrey Mervis wrote an article for science mag.org titled Here’s Some Advice for You, President Trump,From Scientists. In this article he advises some creditidentials for a science policy maker and whom would be ideal for Trump to chose as his advisor. We can see how science has taken a backseat in the administration as most climate scientists in office have been taken off payroll or left due to their own personal reasons.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/here-s-some-advice-you-president-trump-scientists
What are you thoughts on shock tactics? pg 191 Talks about how shock tactic rely on the public becoming disoriented by fast-moving events, and tend to backfire most spectacularly in places where there is a strong collective memory of previous instances when fear and trauma were exploited to undermine democracy. I understand how the shock tactics serve as a shock absorber with provides shared reference points allowing them to name what is happening and fight back. But is this always a good thing?
ReplyDeleteDiscussion question: how long can we keep up the protests on so many fronts, as these are attempts to overwhelm the public and make us adapt to higher and higher levels of drama. Do we need to do more than protest? Should we put our lives on the line for what we believe in?
ReplyDeleteALTERNATE QUIZ QUESTIONS
ReplyDelete1) What makes the constellation of disaster capitalists that surround Trump all the more worrying?
2) What did some imagine the more overtly racist elements of Trump's platform during the campaign designed to do?
3) Whats another reason why this administration might rush to exploit a security crisis?
4) Where do shock politics tend to backfire most spectacularly?
5) What are some hallmarks of the Trump era?
Discussion Question
ReplyDeleteHow did you react to the coordinated attacks that occurred in Paris in 2015, and do you think the government handled it correctly?
Do you think that the Iranian Prime Minister was wrong in his assertion that President Trumps travel ban was a gift to extremist?
What do you think about President Trumps all at once strategy, and what do you think it shows us about his thought process in regards to business.
Peter Maass states that President Trump's administration is like a gun cocked and ready to be fired, how would you describe President Trump's administration?